Woman drives 23 miles the wrong way down motorway

A woman has been jailed for nine months after driving twenty minutes against
traffic on the M5 while twice the drink-drive limit.

1:56PM BST 07 Sep 2011

Deborah Hunt, 43, an unemployed former financial adviser, drove down the fast lane of the M5, dodging oncoming vehicles before coming to a halt on the hard shoulder.

The mother-of-three from Langport, Somerset, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court after admitting dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol and driving without insurance.

The court heard how at around 11pm on July 14 she drove onto the motorway at Junction 24 at 60mph in the dark and had briefly headed south before stunning other drivers by doing a U-turn and driving north.

She drove for at least 20 minutes on the wrong carriageway before she stopped the car, which she was not insured to drive.

When Avon and Somerset Police officers approached the car, she had done another U-turn and the car was stationary facing south on the hard shoulder. Hunt was struggling to restart the engine of her partner's Peugeot 806. Prosecution barrister John Dyer told the judge that officers believe it had run out of petrol.

A breath test showed she was more than twice over the drink-drive limit.

She wept in the dock as Judge Mark Horton said he would be failing in his public duty if he did not jail her immediately for so serious an offence, saying it was "unbelievably fortunate" no one had been killed or injured.

At least 10 motorists called 999 to report her dangerous driving.

Hunt, who had been out of work since being made redundant in May last year, had a long history of alcohol abuse and was acrimonious court proceedings with her former partner over custody of their three children, aged 15, nine and three.

She was jailed her for seven months for dangerous driving and a further two for drink-driving, to be served consecutively. She was also banned from driving for 15 months.